Sri Lanka will gradually stop allowing women going to Saudi Arabia to be housemaids after a Sri Lankan was executed in the country over the death of an infant in her care, the Colombo government said yesterday.
The government said it would raise the minimum age for female domestic workers to be eligible to seek employment in Saudi Arabia to 25 years from the present 21 with an eye on eventually stopping such employment altogether.
“Gradual phase-out is the idea,” said government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. “We can’t stop it overnight. It’s a gradual process and increasing the age limit is part of that.”
A third of the two million Sri Lankan maids working abroad are in Saudi Arabia, according to the country’s foreign employment bureau.
Expatriate worker remittance, the top foreign exchange earner in the $59 billion economy, hit a record $5.43 billion in the first 11 months of 2012, higher than its annual peak of $5.14 billion hit in 2011, central bank data showed.
Lanka to stop maids going to KSA
Lanka to stop maids going to KSA
